The Week We Searched For- September 17, 2010

Skyhook Wireless Files Lawsuit Against Google
The Massachusetts based location information firm, Skyhook Wireless, filed a lawsuit against Google on Wednesday. The software company claims that Google used its industry standing to get Skyhook Wireless’ software removed from Android-based mobile phones and violated four of its patents. For more on the lawsuit, check out The Economist’s blog.[1]You’re So CoalGreenpeace International[2] took a swipe at Facebook’s founder Mark Zuckerberg this week with an animated mini-film this week called “So-Coal Network.” The video criticizes Facebook’s use of coal energy to power its data center in Prineville Oregon, while making several backhanded commentaries about Zuckerberg's character. Check it out and let us know what you think: So-Coal Network[2]Google Introduces First Entrepreneur-in-Residence Google Ventures[3], Google’s venture capital wing, appointed Craig Walker this week to be their first 'entrepreneur-in-residence.' Walker co-founded GrandCentral, i.e. Google Voice, which the search giant purchased for $45 million in 2007. The notion of an entrepreneur-in-residence is sort of a murky concept. As Claire Cain Miller[4] describes it in a post on the NYTimes tech blog, “Entrepreneur-in-residence is one of those only-in-Silicon-Valley jobs[5]. Smart people get paid to sit around and think about new ideas, and investors get the chance to join an entrepreneur early in a new project, betting that lightning will strike twice.”
Yahoo Releases Products
Yahoo held a press conference this week at their headquarters in Sunnyvale to announce number of new features set to launch in the coming months. More than anything else, the press conference served to reminded everyone that, after Google’s launch of Instant search, Yahoo is still relevant in online marketing. The press conference served to remind the industry that Yahoo still occupies 17% of the search market and acts as the world’s most popular email service. To read more, check out Ryan Singel’s article[6] on Wired.com.
How do people use their smartphones?
The Nielsen Company released a report this week that explores how people use their smartphones and the state of mobile apps. According to the report, which surveyed 4,000 people, 59% of smartphone users downloaded a mobile app in the last month, 61% bought and used a game within the last month, and 55% used applications to check the weather. For more details, check out Nielsen’s report “The State of Mobile Apps.”[7]
The Pew Internet Project also released a similar study this week entitled “The Rise of Apps in Culture,”[8] which found that 35% of mobile-phone users have apps on their phones, but only 24% actually use them.